What Does a Web Developer Do?

Web development is a craft that includes many different technologies. However, at the core of it all the responsibility of the web developer is to ensure that the client gets a website that does exactly what he wants it to do. There is a huge difference between being a web developer and a web designer, although their roles do have some overlap, the web designer will rarely be involved with any of the actual code that makes up the web site.

1. Plan The Design And Functionality Of The Website

It usually takes a while before the web developer actually starts to write the code that makes up the web site. When you get the contract for a web project there is a lot of planning and analysis that needs to take place. Usually the customer requires the website to function in a certain way. It is up to the project manager and his development team to estimate how long this will take.

During this stage the web designer will most likely participate to make sure that his design works with the customers requirements. Indeed, the requirements will most likely include details about how the customer wants the web site to appear.

2. Create The Business Logic As Specified By The Customer

When the planning and analysis stage has been completed the web developer will start developing the website. This often includes working with both client side technologies such as HTML, Java Script and CSS and server side technologies such as PHP and.NET.

A good web developer needs to be proficient with many technologies. There is no such thing as a pure HTML developer!

Knowing which tools to use for each part of the web site is instrumental to the success of the project.

3. Implementing The Web Design

You might think that when the web developer is done developing the web site the web designer would start implementing the web site. Even though they often work together it is usually the web developer who is tasked with implementing the web design on the web site.

It is critical that the web designer and the web developer work together on this!

4. Testing, Testing, Testing

Testing is arguably the most important, and most often neglected, part of a web development project. If there are critical errors on the website when it is launched the customer is at risk of losing a lot of money and certainly a lot of credibility.

Having said that the web developer should not be responsible for testing the web site. It is critically important that it is tested by someone who has not been involved in the actual development of the web site.

Would you believe – These 4 stages often takes place at the same time. Iterative development has become increasingly popular, meaning that parts of the website will most likely be tested while other parts of the site is still in development.

Modern web development include many different tasks, but it all starts with the fundamentals.